It's official: Luke Bronin has raised more than $1M for Hartford mayoral race

HARTFORD — Democrat Luke Bronin has raised more than a million dollars in his bid to be Hartford's next mayor.

The latest campaign finance reports filed Tuesday show that Bronin has collected at least $171,000 in individual donations since the start of October, pushing this year's fundraising haul to $1.1 million heading into the last full week of campaigning before the Nov. 3 election.

And the Bronin for Mayor coffers were still flush: After spending at least $960,000 since January, including more than $58,000 this month, Bronin's campaign reported having $163,012 in cash left as of Sunday — a colossal advantage over the three other remaining candidates in the race.

Republican Theodore "Ted" Cannon said he did not collect any donations in recent weeks and reported $275 in remaining cash after spending much of the $1,500 he raised earlier in the race on yard signs.

City Councilman Joel Cruz Jr., a Hartford-born-and-raised candidate who is unaffiliated in his mayoral bid, reported $2,045 in individual donations in October, bumping up his fundraising total to nearly $22,000. He had $3,001 in cash on hand.

Another candidate who petitioned onto the ballot, Patrice Smith, said Wednesday that she has received donations for her low-key mayoral campaign but declined to say how much. Smith has not submitted campaign finance papers, according to the city clerk's office.

Bronin, a 36-year-old lawyer and former general counsel to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, said he has dropped TV advertisements for now after flooding the airwaves in his expensive primary battle against Mayor Pedro Segarra, who endorsed Bronin after conceding the Sept. 16 Democratic primary. Segarra pulled in about $387,000 from donors during his losing re-election campaign.

But the new filing shows that Bronin has continued to spend on direct-mail ads and campaign leaflets, paying $15,494 to a Glastonbury direct-mail company on Saturday and purchasing $490 in postage from the U.S. Postal Service, according to records.

Other reported expenditures include $4,010 in credit card processing fees, $5,085 to The Hartford Club for a recent fundraiser, and a $10,000 consulting payment to communications firm Stu Loeser & Co.

Andrew Doba, Malloy's former communications director, now works for Stu Loeser and has been a campaign spokesman for Bronin.

Among October donors who gave $1,000 to Bronin are Goodwin College President Mark Scheinberg; Hartford board of education Chairman Richard Wareing, a mayoral appointee on the board whose term is up for reappointment early next year; Martin Gavin, CEO of Connecticut Children's Medical Center; and Hartford ballpark developer Robert Landino, the founder and CEO of Centerplan Companies.

Individual donors may give up to $1,000 for a mayoral candidate's campaign leading up to the primary, and another $1,000 heading into the general election.

Bronin donors who gave the maximum $2,000 include Greenwich real estate mogul Peter Malkin; Donald DeVivo, president of the bus company DATTCO; Carolyn Greenspan, chief executive of Blue State Coffee, which has opened up a café on Main Street in Hartford; and developer Abul Islam, head of the Middletown-based AI Engineers Inc., a firm that previously backed Segarra's re-election efforts.

But the battle may already have been lost in Hartford's North End, a key...

The Simon Konover Co. CEO Jane Coppa, her brother Steven Konover and Coppa's husband, Robert Coppa, also gave $2,000 each to Bronin's campaign, according to campaign finance records. So did philanthropist and real estate magnate Simon Konover, who donated an extra $1,000 on Oct. 15, five days before he died at age 93.

Developer Martin Kenny of the Trumbull on the Park apartments downtown, Downes Construction President John Downes and LAZ Parking CEO Alan Lazowski also gave a total of $2,000 each toward Bronin's first run for public office.